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This audio issue has to go. Please see for audio files

Vinny1001
Level 9
Hi,

I'm sure many of you have seen myself as well as some others complain about some audio issues. This can also be seen on many other forums on the ROG boards, and few other brands. Google is a good friend.

The issue:
With realtek drivers from either realtek OR the Asus site, I get audio pops/thumps anytime audio is played from idle. Windows navigation's "click" noise turns into a super short "tick" After 10 seconds idle, it's a louder "tick", and when an audio channel is kept open, stuff sounds normal. Even opening a webpage that opens an audio channel makes a nasty crunch sound.

*Windows default audio drivers work 100% normal*

I have done the following:

Stock BIOS
Updated BIOS
Don't even have my GPU in yet, but that works fine and doesn't change anything
Tried multiple drivers, each time clean uninstall/install
Reformatted countless times
Removed all interference/wireless stuff
Used previous builds PSU and 2 new ones
Swapped all components muliple times
Used different outlets/plugged all into same surge protector strip / tried different surge protector strips
Tried many different drivers/MEI code updates from intel from their own site
Playing with all audio settings / volume levels
Disabled any audio settings not being used, no micophone
Ran PC at performance, turned minimum cpu usage to 100%, disabled C states, speedstep, or any power saving features, EIST disabled.
I have not installed AI suite, I am literally running the bare minimum
Tried different sets of speakers, all speakers work everywhere else normal anyway (speakers confirmed working)
I have the hyper evo heatsink and put it on lightly so it's not pressing hard down on the CPU just to eliminate that being an issue
I have removed USB's, ethernet cable
Used different cables, checked all cables, used the minimal cables/hardware (no extra HD's or fans)
Tested PSU with PSU tester AND Multimeter, as well as the outlets
I've done basically everything you can find on the internet about this issue, I may have not listed all here.
I know my DPC latency was low, there weren't any crazy abnormal spikes

Literally, this only happens with the realtek/Asus drivers, so hardware should be fine, especially since I went through replacements.

I'm running G.Skill RAM that others in another thread are using without any audio issues. RAM has been stress tested, and is running at stock. They are in the correct, suggested slots. I am running the 6700k at STOCK. All stock BIOS 1402. BIOS updated without an issue. Windows 7 64x pro is installed correctly on my SSD. Only the SSD is plugged in and the M8HA is installed on a bench. I have a 850w corsair PSU.

I have swapped through 3 CPU's, 5 mobo's, 2 PSU's, as well as trying my previous builds one, 2 sets of ram, and an extra replacement on the M8HA. I get the same issue each time. I have used the hardware on a Gigabyte, and an MSI, both which did not have this audio "tick" sound. They did have a sizzle sound anytime an audio channel opened though. This has been going on for months. The gigabyte had that constant hissing sound through headphones when the CPU was doing calculations, so basically all the time. Moving the mouse across the screen made it hiss louder. MSI and Asus don't do that hissing. Could this all lead to a ground issue? My outlets seem fine and the grounding is working, plus no other devices have issues.

Asus admitted to this problem to me over the phone multiple times, as well as looking online at it to further investigate. Technical support suggested me after a week, to make sure the correct colored cables are plugged into the correct colored ports on the motherboard...

What could possible be causing this? I have read a lot on power management relating to it. I ask people if they're on stock or OCing, because if you OC you may be keeping the power higher, so on idle it doesn't power down much. I see a lot too on people having laptops with this issue and they can disable power management on their realtek settings. Desktops don't have this. I tried doing it through registry but those registry files didn't exist for power management.

Here are links to the audio files. Quality isn't the best but listen closely between the "ticks" and regular full window "clicks" I also mimicked the "thump" that plays I think through the bass, because my phone wouldn't pick it up, I mimicked it in a separate file because this "thump" plays right before the audio channel opens.

Tick1:https://clyp.it/5evymx2y

Tick2 (good clear ticks):https://clyp.it/q1aura1a

Thump noise (it's a settle "thump" so bear with me):https://clyp.it/2fkyj3ad

Regular windows click noise with windows default/audio channel open (full long regular click we all know navigating through folders):https://clyp.it/cctps45v

Please bear with the quality, it sounds so much worse in person for what I am talking of, but just this is to understand it further.

Please someone help me with this. I've been through so many replacements just to eliminate hardware, and now it's literally down to the drivers, unless some hardware is really bad and hiding good. All points to the drivers, and specifically realtek (all other drivers work with windows default audio driver)

I really hope enough people can help troubleshoot this. I just don't get how some are running a similar set up and have no audio issues.
Z790 Asus Hero Maximus on 0816 BIOS (0914 and 1202 crashes for me on XMP I), Intel 13900k stock clock, Asus 4090 Strix OC edition, FF3D532G720 Teamgroup Ram running XMP I, 16gb x 2, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB x 2, Seasonic VERTEX GX 1200W, Win 11 Pro 64, Deepcool LS720 AIO, NZXT H7 Flow. Comfortably using Armoury Crate for updates/fan xpert.
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36 REPLIES 36

ondersma80
Level 7
Vinny1001 wrote:
I really hope enough people can help troubleshoot this. I just don't get how some are running a similar set up and have no audio issues.


This is the key point. To help guide your troubleshooting, I suggest users avoid posting "works fine for me, no issues" and only have posters with the problem post in this thread. We know a lot of people have no problem, we know some people do. There is no reason to get bogged down in that.

Gather complete system details of those experiencing problems including all connected components. That should help determine the common denominator. Gather motherboard/bios version, CPU, overclock, PSU, software, peripherals, UEFI/BIOS settings, etc... everything.

Good Luck.

ondersma80 wrote:
This is the key point. To help guide your troubleshooting, I suggest users avoid posting "works fine for me, no issues" and only have posters with the problem post in this thread. We know a lot of people have no problem, we know some people do. There is no reason to get bogged down in that.

Gather complete system details of those experiencing problems including all connected components. That should help determine the common denominator. Gather motherboard/bios version, CPU, overclock, PSU, software, peripherals, UEFI/BIOS settings, etc... everything.

Good Luck.


This forum also describes my issue:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2317852

Thanks ondersman. Btw, I haven't had any USB issues since you suggested to turn that BIOS setting on for XHCI hand off. Thank you! Unless it comes up again, but it hasn't, so thank you very much for that!

Anyway, many people have suggested a few things throughout other threads, but no one wants to chime in here. 😞

I typed a lot because that's all the info up front, rather than having to say it later throughout this thread. I really hope someone can help on this issue.

I agree with you fully ondersman!

I really believe it's a realtek, bios setting, or power management related issue. I'd say a grounding issue but everything else works fine, and windows efault audio works fine as well.

Thanks!!

EDIT: On my old Dell 5.1, the sub gives off a loud hum as well. Maybe all this does relate back to a ground loop issue?
http://stuartconnections.com/products/Computers/Peripherals/Speakers/ADA-995/UsersGuide/ADA995_Users...
The possible issue section confirms that.

The gigabyte board did give off that static hissing on CPU usage, which relates to voltage and power usage, and can be caused by a ground loop..

So maybe the Asus handles it different and gives off the pop, 'cause I don't get any hissing on CPU usage, but instead I get the pop noise.

Hmm..

Also, when plugging green to green, realtek pops up that I connected front left/right, but when plugging in the black/gold to their black/gold ports on the mobo, it doesn't have any pop ups..
Z790 Asus Hero Maximus on 0816 BIOS (0914 and 1202 crashes for me on XMP I), Intel 13900k stock clock, Asus 4090 Strix OC edition, FF3D532G720 Teamgroup Ram running XMP I, 16gb x 2, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB x 2, Seasonic VERTEX GX 1200W, Win 11 Pro 64, Deepcool LS720 AIO, NZXT H7 Flow. Comfortably using Armoury Crate for updates/fan xpert.

Thanks for sharing the experience and tips ~:D

Oxmo81
Level 8
Almost the same issue here, but the sound is more like crackling sound like on old LP record when playing games.

I have tryed disable wi-fi and bluethoot in bios, disable one by one Devises/driver/program in Device Manager, older drivers and the newest deivers for nVidia, Lan, wi-fi, and sound.
On the sound driver side I have tryed windows only driver, Realtek only, and Asus Sonic Studio, and all this with old and new dirvers.

Yestarday my water pump stopped working (it was werry old), therfor I had to mount a air coler and then the sound issues got worse.
The only thing that is difrent is a little more heat on the CPU. from around 30 Celsius idle to 40 C on load to 50 C on idle to 70 C on load.

I'm e-mailing Asus suport at the moment, but have not find a solution yet.

I also have tryed a friends ram and power suply, and he did try my ram and power suply, he did not have problems with mine parts, but I did have this problem with his parts and mine parts offcorse. He is using ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard with G-skill ram. and a Corsair RMx Series RM850x power suply. My PC spec list is listed under my username.

This is my post of the problem if enyone want a little more info https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?82267-Hero-Alpha-crackling-sound-in-games

Celador
Level 7
I wrote about this issue over and over again, i've talked to asus support several times and found a "placeholder solution":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZyvOUdbUqY

Second placeholder solution - uninstall Asus audio drivers and use windows stock driver. Im my experience it sounds only ever so slightly worse and the issue disappears completely.

Third one (recommended by Asus by the way) - buy a cheap audio card and use it instead.

As regards to support answer: "We can say that we have been looking at this issue for some time and we can confirm that at this point this is a hardware specific feature which might be addressed later on."

It's a translation and a short version of the answer i've got. Basically - constantly opened channel is NOT a bug, rather a poorly thought feature that they know about.

Im assuming that every single user has this issue but considering that not everyone buys ROG products, writes on this forums (sometimes people actually pretend to own the product and write about it anyway) and that a lot of people can't troubleshoot the issue or understand why is it even happening (some people can't even tell the difference) - we don't get flooded with them.

At the same time - if you look further back you'll notice at least 30 similar threads about sound issues some of which im guessing are the exact same issue we are talking about.

Vinny1001
Level 9
Oxmo, that's really interesting. So it does seem like it's geared toward the ROG mobo's, leaning toward the drivers.

Celador, I just called into Asus again, and they mentioned the same stuff. Except, they didn't say they're aware of the issue or anything related to that. I was told to wait for a few months for new drivers to come out and hope that addressed the issue. lmao.. what. How terrible. I asked if the issue is even noticed much and would be worked on at some point, and I was told that the representative doesn't have contact with other departments. Actually, that's false. Most businesses departments work together, why wouldn't they? lmao. Let your boss or manager know about the big issues so he or she can forward it to the right department. Jeez.

I've had a representative get me a manager months ago and sent my issue into the technical team and they emailed me back a week later telling me to double check that I have the speakers plugged in properly... After all I explained to them.. (the big list up above what I've done) they tell me that?

I noticed a slight difference in my audio. READ:
I've been running with no GPU because I didnt want that to interfere. I've been using HDMI into the monitor.
All drivers except Windows, gave the above issues.

I then decided to put my GPU in, and use DVI, and remove the HDMI.

I then installed 2.79 from realteks site directly, and now I don't get the pop when audio channels open or when sound plays. If my speakers are turned up high enough (the knob on the speakers) anytime audio plays, I can hear the slightest thump in the sub, I think this is normal. When I turn the knob down lower, and windows volume high, then that little thump goes away, unless it's super quiet. Either way, I don't get the audio pops anymore. But from 10 seconds idle, and I click a folder, the audio takes 2 seconds to make the click noise. So if I click itno a folder, it's silent for 2 seconds, then the click comes. If I keep clicking through folders, it sounds normal. From Idle is where it stalls (power management issue?)

So either way, I suggest trying this for the time being. I tried using the Asus realtek drivers, and those gave the typical audio pop issues all over. So the only drivers that work for what I said above is the realtek 2.79 from their site directly.

Also, I noticed with these drivers, anytime a new audio channel opens (right click speaker, volume mixer) there's a slight static sizzle through the speakers. On windows default audio drivers, I don't get that at all. Literally all works perfect with windows drivers, but lacks the quality!

Let me know if any one is experiencing this too. Call into Asus and let them know about the issue. This should be addressed and corrected.
Z790 Asus Hero Maximus on 0816 BIOS (0914 and 1202 crashes for me on XMP I), Intel 13900k stock clock, Asus 4090 Strix OC edition, FF3D532G720 Teamgroup Ram running XMP I, 16gb x 2, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB x 2, Seasonic VERTEX GX 1200W, Win 11 Pro 64, Deepcool LS720 AIO, NZXT H7 Flow. Comfortably using Armoury Crate for updates/fan xpert.

Celador
Level 7
I've tried installing drivers from realtek site directly and even found a thread where people post closed beta builds of the newest drivers:

http://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/5993-latest-realtek-hd-audio-driver-version-65.html?

But nothing really worked for me. So im using a software mentioned in the video above to keep my sound channel constantly opened.

As for support - if you have been talking to US one you are probably out of luck. Unfortunately they outsource their support to India just like many other companies do and their level of incompetence is just staggering.

Out of curiosity i wrote to them once instead of my regional asus support - i barely could understand their English and their suggestions were to update bios and use safe mode. It was both infuriating and sad really.

You could keep asking to escalate your issue until you get someone competent and knowledgeable though... or just give up on Asus all-together like i did.

Celador wrote:
I've tried installing drivers from realtek site directly and even found a thread where people post closed beta builds of the newest drivers:

http://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/5993-latest-realtek-hd-audio-driver-version-65.html?

But nothing really worked for me. So im using a software mentioned in the video above to keep my sound channel constantly opened.

As for support - if you have been talking to US one you are probably out of luck. Unfortunately they outsource their support to India just like many other companies do and their level of incompetence is just staggering.

Out of curiosity i wrote to them once instead of my regional asus support - i barely could understand their English and their suggestions were to update bios and use safe mode. It was both infuriating and sad really.

You could keep asking to escalate your issue until you get someone competent and knowledgeable though... or just give up on Asus all-together like i did.


Celador, I was contacted on the forums here by Bahz, and he sent me two audio clips, one showing the windows navigation sound, the "tick" noise issue, that I am having, and a regular full windows click between folders. I told him yes I am having the "tick" issue, and he was wanting to confirm with me that they have replicated it properly. He said he has been speaking to the engineering team already. I gave him more info and he said he will forward the extra info I gave to the motherboard engineers, and will also try to contact Realtek to further solve the issue.

This wasn't the typical support, it was actually in depth and Bahz actually made two videos showing the audio issue I am having and regular audio, to confirm the issue I am having as well as showing they were able to replicate it.

So they can replicate it, now they will attempt to find the root cause! Well, hopefully. lol.

So I hope we're all in good hands here!
Z790 Asus Hero Maximus on 0816 BIOS (0914 and 1202 crashes for me on XMP I), Intel 13900k stock clock, Asus 4090 Strix OC edition, FF3D532G720 Teamgroup Ram running XMP I, 16gb x 2, Samsung 980 Pro 2TB x 2, Seasonic VERTEX GX 1200W, Win 11 Pro 64, Deepcool LS720 AIO, NZXT H7 Flow. Comfortably using Armoury Crate for updates/fan xpert.

Vinny1001 wrote:
Celador, I was contacted on the forums here by Bahz, and he sent me two audio clips, one showing the windows navigation sound, the "tick" noise issue, that I am having, and a regular full windows click between folders. I told him yes I am having the "tick" issue, and he was wanting to confirm with me that they have replicated it properly. He said he has been speaking to the engineering team already. I gave him more info and he said he will forward the extra info I gave to the motherboard engineers, and will also try to contact Realtek to further solve the issue.

This wasn't the typical support, it was actually in depth and Bahz actually made two videos showing the audio issue I am having and regular audio, to confirm the issue I am having as well as showing they were able to replicate it.

So they can replicate it, now they will attempt to find the root cause! Well, hopefully. lol.

So I hope we're all in good hands here!


Any update on this? The "pop" sound on startup or when the channel opens is starting to get on my nerve now......